[Dixielandjazz] Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival--Ken Mathieson writes

[Marek Boym]

Judginh by Ken's description, the Roy Percy band must have been THE
traditional attraction of the festival.  What a lineup.
Are the Batchelors still under the leadership of Mr. Batchelor?  I remember
that band (certainlywith different lineup) from 1984!
When I attended the Edinburgh festival, it featured such international
stars as Doc Cheatham, Buddy Tate, Benny Watters, Bob Barnard, and the
wonderful French Hot Antic Jazz Band.  And Acker Bilk (nostalgia for me - I
heard Bilk in either 1954 or 1955 in Poland, before he was "Mr." and
featured those ridiculous waistcoats).
Good old days!
Cheers


On 15 August 2013 04:45, Norman Vickers <nvickers1 at cox.net> wrote:

> *To:  Musicians and Jazzfans list; DJML*
>
> *From: Ken Mathieson via Norman Vickers*
>
> * *
>
> *Glasgow, Scotland resident and drummer/arranger Ken Mathieson sends a
> review of recent Edinburgh JazzFest.*
>
> *At my request he has given us this report and invites us to the 2014
> Jazzfest there.  I’ve appended dates and website below.*
>
> * *
>
> *As reported  previously, Ken has performed with and arranged for Fat
> Sam’s Jazz Band of Edinburgh for about 14 years and, as he writes below,
> performs with his own group now.  His work as an accountant previously  has
> taken him to Brazil where he participated in the music there, as well.*
>
> * *
>
> *Ken Mathieson writes:*
>
> * *
>
> * *
>
> *From:** Ken Mathieson [mailto:ken at kenmath.free-online.co.uk]
> Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2013 6:28 PM
> To: Norman Vickers
> Subject: Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival*
>
> * *
>
> *The 35th annual Edinburgh Jazz Festival & Blues Festival took place in
> the last week of July with concerts covering just about every aspect of
> jazz and the blues. It wasn't always like that: in its early years, most
> of the gigs were pretty informal and the musical fare was predominantly
> traditional jazz of all styles and mainstream. The festival's founder was
> banjoist and bandleader Mike Hart, a name which will ring bells with
> musicians and jazz fans who attended the Sacto Jubilee in the 1970s and 80s
> and the San Diego Jazz Festival more recently. Mike modelled the concept on
> Sacto, with predominantly semi-pro bands from around the world working a
> circuit of pub gigs. In time, big names started to be booked and the gigs
> started to become concerts. In the 1980s and 1990s major players like
> Sweets Edison, Buddy Tate, Al Grey, Kenny Davern, Bob Wilber, Teddy Wilson,
> Al Cohn, Milt Hinton, Jake Hanna and others too numerous to mention became
> festival regulars and a whole weekend of blues concerts was added.***
>
> * *
>
> *As the demographics of the customers changed, so too did the
> festival's musical policy. Producer/Director Roger Spence was recruited to
> programme the more contemporary content, while Mike Hart remained
> responsible for the trad/mainstream element. Over time, Mike has taken more
> of a back seat, but still played this year in a concert with a
> specially-assembled Dixieland band of local players. This year's
> programme covered an amazing range of musical idioms: New Orleans Brass
> Bands, Ragtime, Dixieland, Gipsy Swing, Cajun, Blues of all genres,
> Jump-Jive, Big Band, Bop, Hard Bop, Post-bop, Hip-hop, Contemporary Fusion
> styles, Scandinavian cool, Brazilian Choros, Flamenco-jazz and so on. Among
> the headline concerts were the Darius Brubeck Quartet, Ellington's Sacred
> Music (complete with big band, tap dancer, gospel choir etc), a British
> trad extravaganza with the Three Bs (Barber, Bilk and Ball and their bands
> - the Ball band is led by son Keith since Kenny's recent death), Eric
> Burdon & the Animals, Fat Sam's Band, which is still a big draw in its
> hometown.***
>
> * *
>
> *This year I was involved in concerts by the Batchelors of Jazz, a local
> Dixieland band of mainly pro and ex-pro players, the Roy Percy Sextet, my
> own Classic Jazz Orchestra  with New Orleans clarinetist Evan Christopher,
> and accompanying New York based singer/pianist Champian Fulton. She was a
> delight to work with: a fine singer and an excellent pianist with a heavy
> Errol Garner influence. Watch out for her: she's got genuine ability. Roy
> Percy is an Edinburgh-based string bass player who is in demand all over
> Europe. He's at home in a variety of styles, but his forte is slap-bass
> playing. His sextet comprised Evan Christopher on clarinet, London-based
> Enrico Tomasso on trumpet and vocals (he's also Acker Bilk's trumpeter as
> well as a busy free-lancer), Edinburgh-based alto sax player Martin Kershaw
> (an incredibly fluent and musical player with a gorgeous tone), the
> wonderfully talented Italian pianist Paolo Alderighi, Roy was on bass and I
> was on drums. Enrico brought along a pile of arrangements of material
> recorded by the John Kirby Sextet which were a tough read (tempos can be
> quite challenging, dynamics are crucial, melody leads are
> constantly changing) but they're a delight to play, epecially when we get
> them right!***
>
> * *
>
> *For those of you unfamiliar with my Classic Jazz Orchestra (CJO), it's
> an octet (tpt, tbn, 3 reeds, pno, bs, ds) consisting mainly of pro and
> ex-pro players and its policy is to re-interpret (not replicate) the first
> 80 or so years of jazz styles, so we cover pretty well everything from
> Jelly Roll Morton to Charles Mingus. Indeed our concert programme, with
> good pal Evan Christopher as our guest, did exactly that, although its twin
> themes were the New Orleans Clarinet Tradition and some of Jelly's
> compositions from the last year of his life when he was writing for an
> abortive big band project. CJO has 2 outstanding clarinetists in its
> line-up (Dick Lee and Martin Foster) and I had written a few pieces
> featuring Evan, Dick and Martin as a clarinet trio. It's a measure of their
> musical taste that they didn't turn these pieces into a "chopsfest" but
> played outstanding music while jousting with each other in a good-natured
> way. The N.O. Clarinet Tradition pieces paid homage to Tio, Bechet, Bigard,
> Noone, Simeon, Fazola and Ed Hall, while the Morton rarities included Stop
> and Go, Ganjam, Jazz Jubilee, Superior Rag as well as better-known pieces
> like Black Bottom Stomp and Grandpa's Spells (although it's worth knowing
> that we play all of that stuff in a variety of styles with occasional cross
> references to Jelly's recordings).***
>
> * *
>
> *For readers wondering about a visit to the Edinburgh Jazz Festival in
> 2014, don't hesitate: it's a beautiful city steeped in history, has great
> places to eat and the jazz festival is a well-produced event with
> world-class performers. It's also a friendly city, so, if you do turn up
> next year, please come up and say hello.*
>
> * *
>
> *
> -----*
>
> *Here’s info from the website:*
>
> *Our dates for 2014 are 18th to 27th July - we hope to see you there.
> See website www.edinburghjazzfestival.com  ***
>
> *
> ------*
>
> * *
>
> *Norman writes:  it’s interesting to note that the Edinburgh Jazz
> Festival has enlarged their styles of music to accommodate  changing tastes
> of its patrons.  My guess is that there was similar reaction and criticism
> from the “old heads” at Edinburgh  as we saw and heard on DJML as relates
> to the change in emphasis and minor name change  from  some devotees of the
> Sacramento Jazz Festival, renamed Sacramento Music Festival.*
>
> ** **
>
>
> *--end--*
>
>  ****
>